


Carnival games

by I_Can_Vibe_With_That



Series: Voltron Oneshots [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Carnival, Christmas, Established Relationship, Fluff, Holidays, I can still tag that right? It's sort of a Christmas fic, M/M, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 02:16:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17133158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_Can_Vibe_With_That/pseuds/I_Can_Vibe_With_That
Summary: Lance knows that the carnival games are rigged. Keith knows that Lance knows. Sure, his boyfriend is an incredibly good shot and is super talented, but those games are evil.





	Carnival games

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort if a Christmas fic. More of a winter fic really. I got really inspired to write this because of a video by Mark Rober on Youtube where he talks about how carnival games are a scam and like, science. But he also brings his friends, who just completely destroys the games. Afterwards they go around carrying an unnecessary amount of prizes. I thought it was a fun idea, so now there's this

“Lance, what are you doing? You’re gonna waste all your money here. These games are scams, you know that.” Keith tugged on Lance’s hand, bringing them to a stop. The people behind them grumbled at them to move but Keith didn’t care.

 

They were at the winter festival. There were shows and food and different booths selling things.  And of course, there were carnival games. 

 

Keith, well he kinda hated carnival games. He kinda hated carnivals in general. They were miserable and total wastes of money, but Lance had really wanted to go to the winter carnival and he promised it’s better than summer carnivals, so Keith conceded.

 

“Babe, did you forget who you’re here with? This sharpshooter is the best at carnival games. I’m basically a hero among my siblings and niblings. I got this.” Lance tugged at his hand, pulling him farther into the festival.

 

“You lost our last snowball fight.”

 

“Yes, and that’s because you are a competitive fiend when it comes to things like that. You are incredibly fast, unfairly strong and have a surprisingly small target area. Also, you got in really close range and smothered me with snow, which is cheating.” Lance gave him a look over his shoulder.

 

“So is kissing me in the middle of the match!”

 

“Shh shh, semantics.”

 

Keith rolled his eyes at his ridiculous boyfriend.

 

“How about this: I bet you I’m going to win at every single skill-based shooting or throwing game here. If I win, I get a reward of my choosing. If I lose, you get bragging rights.”

 

“Deal.”

 

-

 

Turns out, Keith shouldn’t have doubted his boyfriend's skills. And he also should have brought a bigger bag. He was currently carrying 22 different prizes from 22 different stalls. Lance had managed to win at every single stall they had visited, and on the first try too.

 

When Keith asked how he kept winning on the first try, Lance simply responded “experience and observation Starburst,” which wasn’t very helpful. 

 

Lance had won at the basketball game, the milk bottles, basket toss, darts, plate breaking,  you name it. He had even managed to land a ring perfectly on the neck of a bottle, where Keith could have sworn the ring was just barely bigger than the bottleneck. 

 

Currently, Lance was dominating a game of beer pong, which seemed oddly adult for being marketed in a family friendly event. 

 

People had actually started to notice how Keith was slowly being engulfed in prizes and plushies, and had begun to follow the couple around to the different stalls. They watched and cheered and recorded videos of Lance destroying every single game he did. And Lance seemed to be thriving under the attention. To anyone else, Lance would seem unfazed and totally focused on the game, but Keith could see the slight smile on his face, and the way he exaggerated, putting on a show.

 

Oh well, he was having fun.

 

As the last ping pong bounced into the last plastic cup, the crowd around them cheered. Lance smiled and turned back to him.

 

He wrapped an arm around Keith’s shoulder and pulled him in close, talking into his beanie so he could hear over the crowd. “Which do you want?”

 

Keith smiled, pointing at the giant shark he knew his boyfriend had been eyeing. The employee brought it down and handed it to Lance who took it and began leading Keith over to a hot chocolate vendor as the crowd dispersed. They sat at one of the empty picnic tables, all of the prizes piled on top.

 

“Looks like I win the bet.” Lance said smugly.

 

Keith rolled his eyes. “Fine, what’s your reward?”

 

Lance didn’t answer. Instead, he puckered his lips and shut his eyes. Keith laughed slightly at his boyfriend before he leaned in to give him a sweet kiss on the lips.

 

“There, are you happy?”

 

Lance smiled at him. “Very.” They both took a drink of their hot chocolate.

 

It started to snow lightly, little fluffy flurries got caught in their eyelashes and melted in their drinks.

 

“We don’t need this many prizes. There are way too many,” Keith said, leaning against Lance’s shoulder.

 

“Yeah, but I was just trying to prove a point.”

 

“We’re not taking all of these home Lance.”

 

“Yeah I know,” he trailed off, taking a sip of his hot chocolate. “Hey, we could give out the ones we aren’t keeping to the kids in the kids zone!”

 

“Good idea, but you better choose your favourites now.” Keith drained his styrofoam cup, handing it to Lance, who in turn threw it straight in the trash.

 

“I’m keeping the shark, obviously, and… I want whatever this is.” Lance held up what looked like a demented piece of broccoli with a face. “What about you?”

 

“Mine are already in my bag. We’re good to give away the rest of them.”

 

Lance tossed his own empty styrofoam cup in the garbage and wiped his hands clean on a napkin. He picked up his chosen prizes, putting them in his bag, (the shark was too big to fit all the way in, so the top half stuck out the top of his backpack) and grabbed half of the prizes on the table. Keith grabbed the other half and followed Lance to the kid’s zone.

 

-

 

When they got there, Lance greeted the employee who was working there. 

 

“Hey Maurice! How are you!”

 

“Lance? Man is it good to see you. Or at least some if you.” Maurice grabbed some of the prizes, revealing Lance’s grinning face. 

 

“We brought a bunch of toys for the kids to take!” 

 

Maurice smiled. “That’s awesome. And I’m guessing this is the ever famous Keith I keep hearing about?”

 

Keith smiled at him. “Hi.”

 

Maurice’s smile widened. “Okay, let’s give out these gifts!”

 

-

 

It didn’t take long before all the extra prizes were gone. A lot of the kids were smiling, and a few parents had even thanked them.

 

Having said goodbye to Maurice, Lance and Keith were back to walking through the festival hand in hand. They went around to the different booths, trying out the free things, and somehow collecting more prizes, albeit smaller things like pens and sunglasses.

 

They were supposed to be avoiding the  carnival games now, when something caught Keith’s eye.

 

It was a ladder game. There were three ladders, each was attached at one point on the wall and at two points on the floor. There was a red button on the wall above each ladder. But that’s not what caught his eye, or ear he should say.

 

As they passed by, he could hear the employee running the game make a bet with everyone. He said “if anyone can make it to the top of the ladder and press the buzzer on every single ladder, and we’ve only had one person be able to climb a ladder all day, I’ll pay them $50!”

 

It was an effective business strategy. Keith could see a crowd of people either trying their luck at climbing the rope, or standing around to watch people fail.

 

Keith looked at Lance, who had also noticed the stall and smirked. Lance smirked right back.  

 

-

 

You see, what that unlucky employee didn’t know when he accepted Keith's money to play, is that Keith spent a large portion of his life climbing and balancing on precarious objects. And he was really good at it. So while the employee thought that Keith would end up being one of the many to end up on his back on the snow dusted mat, he was wrong.

 

Keith quickly and easily scaled each of the ladders, in no way impeded by the growing distance between the rungs as he changed ladders. As he dropped off the last ladder, he turned to a cheering crowd and Lance making an extremely smug ‘pay up’ face at the baffled employee. 

 

They walked away from the carnival game with another prize and $50 carefully tucked into Keith’s wallet.

**Author's Note:**

> I though 'Starburst' was a cute nickname. Also, I don't know if a winter festival like this exists, this is kind of a mash up of different festivals and carnivals I've been to in the winter and summer.


End file.
